Fellow Dancers Now Criticising Cheryl Burke

Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Louis van Amstel, two male dancers from Dancing With The Stars, have come out with quotes over the fact that Cheryl Burke put on five pounds this past summer. Not only now is it Ms. Burke being targeted, but also the new female dancer Lacey Schwimmer is being targeted as she is curvier than some others.

When I first saw these women this season, I said, ‘Guys, you know the camera adds 10 pounds. You have to do something about this.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy

This was followed by

[People] look at this show to be inspired and think, ‘If I just work hard enough, I can look like that. If they watch someone who’s dancing her butt off and she’s still heavy, they can be discouraged.”
Louis van Amstel

First off, van Amstel has a reputation for being a pain in the ass, and has been rumored to be a problem with the dancers during the tours. He isn’t even an official professional on the series this season though he has floated through some of the showcase dances. As for Chmerkovskiy, who is he to make such comments?

If it sounds like this makes me angry, than you are hearing correctly. I have known many people with eating disorders, and there are many deaths related to such disorders each year. True, people also die from being overweight, but Ms. Burke and Ms. Schimmer are far from being overweight. For these men to say anything of this nature is just irresponsible, uncalled for and unnecessarily vicious.

If these women are happy with themselves, then more power to them, and to suggest that they are of unhealthy weight levels does nothing but further the idea that women must be model thin at all times. The wisest thing for these men to say about the situation would have been either a) to support their fellow dancers or b) not say a thing at all about it. Any guesses which option I think is the better choice?

I would hope to see this issue just die and go away, but so long as people continue to say such nasty things about a women of a perfectly healthy weight and size, then I feel compelled to say something about it.